Pilgrimage Festival: The best performances of 2021

Two years ago, Dave Grohl and the Foo Fighters sent the 2019 Pilgrimage Music & Cultural Festival into the sunset. Unbeknownst to all of us, however, it was also the Nashville area’s last hurrah for music festivals for the next two years.

But this weekend — after the pandemic shut down the concert industry for a year, and a series of tough breaks stopped Bonnaroo, Garth Brooks and others from holding events in recent months — Pilgrimage returned, and Music City finally got back to big festival business.

The two-day event was shouldered by Dave Matthews Band, The Black Keys, Maren Morris and Cage The Elephant, but other acts delivered marquee-worthy performances, as well. 

Dave Matthews Band

Was this entire weekend-spanning festival, at its core, a Dave Matthews Band concert with several dozen opening acts? Honestly, that argument has legs after seeing the fields of Harlinsdale Farm more full than it had been all weekend long – and arguably as full as it had been since Justin Timberlake’s 2017 appearance – for the group’s festival-closing set.

That crowd was singing along to “Everyday” before Matthews even started the first verse of their 2001 hit. The singer-songwriter is a no-brainer for the Williamson County fest’s core audience – organizers booked him to play acoustically with Tim Reynolds in 2018, but severe storms forced them to cut the event short before they were able to take the stage.

On top of unexpected covers of Huey Lewis and the News’ “I Want A New Drug” and Peter Gabriel’s “Sledgehammer,” the band – who in spite of their many ‘90s hits, were a live entity first and foremost – pulled out staples like “Warehouse,” “Jimi Thing” and “So Much to Say” during their 18-song set. And seemingly no lick was left unturned during their signature “Ants Marching,” while their cover of Bob Dylan’s “All Along the Watchtower” – first played by the band 30 years ago this month – gave Pilgrimage 2021 an epic final flourish.

The Black Keys

From “I Got Mine” to “Howlin’ For You,” “Your Touch” and “Gold On The Ceiling,” The Black Keys wasted no time in covering the entirety of their now-20-year career with their Pilgrimage debut.

But on top of hammering home that the Nashville-based duo has graduated to “legacy act” status, a big slice of their headlining set honored the blues musicians that had an immeasurable influence on their sound.

Chief among those musicians are R.L. Burnside and Junior Kimbrough, whose songs are tackled on the band’s 2021 covers album “Delta Kream.” They recorded it in just two days, alongside guitarist Kenny Brown and bassist Eric Deaton – accomplished musicians who played with Burnside and Kimbrough before their respective deaths in 2005 and 1998.

And on Saturday, Brown and Deaton made the drive up from Mississippi to play with the duo at Pilgrimage – a one-off treat for the Nashville-area crowd, frontman Dan Auerbach noted.

“When I was 18 years old, I went up to Cleveland, Ohio…to see R.L. Burnside play, and Kenny was playing guitar, and (grandson) Cedric Burnside was playing drums. And it changed my life. And it’s such an honor to have him here playing with us tonight. So we’re gonna play a song that they played that night.”

That was Burnside’s “Coal Black Mattie,” one of several covers (and “Delta Kream” cuts) the band pulled out in the middle of their set, as well as Kimbrough’s “Crawling Kingsnake.”

Auerbach made sure Brown and Deaton got their share of applause before closing out with another string of album-hopping favorites, including “Tighten Up,” “Fever” and the night-closing rave-up “Lonely Boy.”

Maren Morris

Not to take away from the accomplishments of Dave Matthews Band and The Black Keys, but in terms of modern stardom and relevance, Maren Morris was in a league of her own at Pilgrimage this weekend. The 31-year-old country star reached new heights of fame and acclaim with her 2019 sophomore album, “Girl,” and with Saturday’s performance, she was essentially closing that chapter of her career.

"I’m gonna be a little bit in my feels tonight," she said from the stage. "Because all my friends from Texas are here. My son is here. My husband’s here. All the family’s here. This is like a hometown show, and it’s actually my last show until I have new music out, so I feel like this is sort of the end of an era for me, and to end it here at Pilgrimage feels very apropos."

Morris' set — which attracted an overflowing crowd around the Gold Record Road stage — also reminded that some of her most exciting work has been outside the confines of an album cycle. There was her pop crossover smash "The Middle," and "Redesigning Women" by her country supergroup The Highwomen — though unlike their performance at the Americana Honors & Awards show this past week, Morris went it alone. 

But after a cover of Taylor Swift's "Out of The Woods," Morris was joined in person by one of her collaborators -- her husband Ryan Hurd. They sang their duet, "Chasing After You," which is poised to crack the Top 10 of Billboard's Country Airplay chart in the coming weeks.

Cage The Elephant

By allowing kids 10 and under to attend with their parents for free, Pilgrimage built a family-friendly reputation from the beginning. That spirit has extended backstage: before Nashville (via Bowling Green, Kentucky) Grammy-winning rockers Cage The Elephant took the stage in the fest’s penultimate performance, the band brought out two of the members’ daughters to greet the crowd.

Moments later, Cage’s freewheeling frontman Matt Shultz emerged in a skin-tight, sparking jumpsuit that covered his entire body and head – plus kneepads and a shimmering face shield for good measure.

The gradual peeling of that surreal number made for compelling hour-long performance art, as Shultz and company masterfully reeled through a set that included rowdy favorites “Shake Me Down,” “Ready To Let Go,” “Ain’t No Rest For The Wicked” and closer “Cigarette Daydreams.”

Marcus King Band

“I live right down the street, so I couldn’t say no,” Marcus King told his sprawling audience about playing Pilgrimage.

In turn, the Marcus King Band — originally from Greenville, South Carolina - delivered an explosion of southern horn-spiked rock and soul that was hard for many to resist.

King — a phenomenal vocalist and guitarist — is a rapidly rising star in his field, and big fests like Pilgrimage are certainly where he’s been gaining a lot of ground.

After proclaiming they’d all “get to know each other real well,” King and his band ripped into "How Long," fueled by with stomping beat and belted, Otis Redding-inspired vocals that rivaled Chris Stapleton’s pipes in its best moments.

Speaking of gaining ground, there was hardly an inch of Harlinsdale Farm that wasn’t invaded by King’s snarling guitar solos. The sound overtook the sensitive balladeers at a nearby singer-songwriter stage, and was clearly heard during Houndmouth’s set on the opposite end of the field.

Those audiences didn’t sign up for King, but it’s safe bet he found more than a few converts among them, too, especially with his gutsy but winning cover of Percy Sledge’s “When a Man Loves a Woman.”

Tank and The Bangas

“If you believe in the power of live music, you’re in the right place,” Tarriona "Tank" Ball said while leading her New Orleans soul collective Tank and the Bangas on Sunday afternoon. By the end of their performance, the thousands scattered around the Midnight Sun stage were of a common faith.

The band – which has been on a sharp ascent since winning an NPR “Tiny Desk” contest four years ago – saw to it that the audience left with gratitude and cognizance of all that goes into building an infectious groove. The charismatic Ball made sure the lesson went down easy, too.

“I hope you’re enjoying the musicians,” she said authoritatively, giving brass, woodwinds, keys, guitars and rhythm equal time to shine.

Recess came in the form of “Betty Bussit,” an irresistible single inspired by their hometown’s “bounce music” legacy – and judging by its explosive reception, we’d say Pilgrimage needs to make it a priority to work more hip-hop into its programming.

Black Pumas

If you chose to wear a band T-shirt to Pilgrimage this weekend, odds are it was one sold by Black Pumas.

The Austin, Texas soul-rockers continued their global takeover at the festival on Sunday – and even though frontman Eric Burton may have set a record for number of times referring to Franklin as Nashville (a common Pilgrimage flub), we’d say their rock solid Sunday afternoon set went off without a hitch, especially with the sleeper hit "Colors" in their arsenal — and a surprising cameo by Dave Matthews during “Dirty Dirty.”

Khruangbin

For as long as they were on the festival grounds, the members of this trippy Texas trio were likely the three coolest people in Franklin, Tennessee. For all we know, a funk-fueled spaceship landed behind the Gold Record Road stage on Sunday, and its occupants decamped to give the crowd an entrancing hour of otherworldly psychedelic grooves.

Valerie June

“This time last year, I don’t know about your a—, but my a— was at the house,” said Valerie June in one of many candid between-song statements.

“And I was missing live music. I was missing people, connection and hugs. And when I sing this song, I always think about how lucky we are, especially here in Tennessee…so this song is for luck and great fortune.”

That didn’t just go for the next song — the sublime “Slip Slide On By” — but for the entirety of the Memphis-based artist’s set. The Americana mainstay was as endearingly free-spirited as ever, crooning, wailing and even growling through selections from her last decade's worth of releases.

“The one thing that can never be taken from you is your joy,” she told her crowd.

Houndmouth

In the early hours of Pilgrimage 2021, rootsy indie rockers Houndmouth started out cool and casual on the fest’s biggest stage. So laidback, in fact, you couldn’t tell where checking sound levels ended and playing their opening song, “Ohio,” began.

“Don't kill my Ohio,“ frontman Matt Myers cryptically sang, his facemask still tucked under his chin.

“Thanks for coming to our soundcheck,” quipped drummer Shane Cody.

Whatever you want to call it, it earned a warm reception in this setting: a gaping sea of lawn chairs along with some screaming diehards up front. So the Indiana band stayed in that lane, delivering two more songs at a near-identical tempo and laconic rock groove (think a not-so-Crazy Horse).

Houndmouth picked up speed soon enough, first with the six-year old favorite “Black Gold” and ultimately with the bouncy indie-popper “Sedona,” which found Cody rocking his sunglasses right off his head.

"Ohio" is among the songs featured on their upcoming album, "Good For You," which will be released November 5.